The industrial city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, has recently been rocked by a series of brutal murders, the latest of which involved the discovery of a male corpse set in concrete, and placed inside a metal drum that had been thrown into the sea. The woman at the centre of investigations is Sumida Miyoko (64), who is thought to have orchestrated the deaths of at least four people, with police suspecting that several more bodies of missing persons have yet to be discovered.

On October 14-15, three bodies were discovered at an unoccupied house in Amagasaki, said to be the home of the 88 year old grandmother of Sumida’s daughter-in-law, whose whereabouts are now unknown. It was later revealed that the victims had all been close to Sumida: Nakashima Mariko (29), the sister of Sumida’s daughter-in-law Sumida Rui; Tanimoto Takashi (68), a mutual friend; and Ando Mitsue (71), Sumida’s elder brother’s girlfriend. Witness statements suggest that they had all died as a result of violent assault and starvation.

Furthermore, in February Sumida was indicted for causing death by injury when the body of Oe Kazuko (66) was discovered in a warehouse encased in concrete in a metal drum. There are also suspicions that Sumida might be involved in the reported accidental death of her younger sister’s husband in 2005, for which her sister, Sumida Mieko, received a 90-million yen ($1,126,692) insurance pay out when he fell off a cliff at a sight-seeing spot during a family holiday in Okinawa.

Below, we bring you details of the latest incident in the series of murders, including the opinions of Japanese netizens on this chilling case.

Body found in metal drum in Hyogo Prefecture – could be missing man; police working on identifying the body now

In the latest in a series of incidents involving dead bodies dumped in and around Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, on October 31 officers discovered another body within a metal drum that was pulled from the sea near the city of Bizen, Okayama Prefecture. Police believe that it is highly likely to be the body of a missing 54 year old man, a relative of Sumida Miyoko (64), who was indicted on charges of manslaughter and is reported to have been behind several other deaths. They are currently working to confirm the identity of the body.

According to investigators, the age of the victim is unknown, but the body has not yet started decomposing. The body was discovered when concrete that had been poured inside the metal drum was examined earlier that day.

Several witnesses close to Sumida are reported to have told the police that the missing man ‘died after being assaulted some time in summer last year, so Sumida concealed him inside the drum full of concrete at a rented warehouse in Amagasaki.’ According to their explanation, Sumida took the body by car to Bizen and dumped it due to the fact that there was nowhere to bury the body in the house at Kajigashima in Amagasaki where the other three bodies had been found.

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Ruaraidh

Well well, seems like a case of the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy. That is unless I’m missing something and she actually is a Korean masquerading under a Japanese name.

besudesu

I didn’t see the end of your comment, here, Ruaraidh. But you’re right…the comments are reminiscent of kB murder-related articles.

elizabeth

It’s Halloween.

Getrealson

did I miss something? why are they saying she’s korean? is she?

chucky3176

You have to understand Getrealson, that’s how it is in Japan. Every single high profile crime case will bring out the old accusation, “the perp must be a Korean, not a real Japanese”. It’s par for the course, water off the duck’s back. As we all know, real Japanese cannot possibly commit any crime. “They can only be Koreans death”, “Koreans always commit crimes death”, “Japanese cannot possibly do such things death”. Of course, there maybe a time when they really are right and the perp turns out to be an ethnic Korean. But when you guess every single time that the criminal is a Korean when the crimes happen, you cannot possibly go wrong, can you?

besudesu

Chucky….that’s not really fair. How about Korean netizens? They don’t say most criminals are choson-jok or Chinese? I think we both know they do.

chucky3176

Actually, I’ve hardly noticed any cases where criminals are real South Koreans, but Korean netizens falsely accuse the criminals of being Joseonjok or Chinese. If the criminal is a South Korean, they are accepted as South Korean, and it’s rare for anyone to accuse the criminal of being Joseonjoks or Chinese who are disguising themselves as South Korean.

royaljester

No different than any country in the world. All it takes is one person. If anything, Korea does this way more. Not that you know much of anything. And yes, there are plenty of stories where immediately they accused a real Korean of being Chinese immigrants. I take it you can’t read Korean and just rely on whatever you’re fed?

chucky3176

Oh, I read Korean. Do you?

Sillian

Not sure how you gauge which country’s netizens do this ‘way more’. But to be accurate, it is Joseonjok or Korean Chinese immigrants who get the most visible online prejudice in Korea.

besudesu

No, she’s not Korean. She may be an ethnic Korean living in Japan, but that would make her Japanese, not Korean. Sadly, zainichi Koreans (that is, Koreans resident in Japan), often have a hard time even though most of them don’t even speak Korean and have grown up in Japan….

nic

If you have korean blood then you are korean no matter what. Maybe in the west people think different, i dunno.

chucky3176

Yes nic is correct. If she had an ancestor back in 1600’s, who was Korean, she would not be considered to be Japanese. I believe Japanese go back as far as 1000 years when they consider someone’s Japanese club eligibility.

royaljester

You don’t know anything about Japan do you. When determining if someone is zainichi or burakuman et al the only thing that matters is your family registry. If it says you’re 100% Japanese by blood, then it is proof positive you’re Japanese even to racists. For many families, these books hardly go back hundreds of years and yet this is enough to satisfy even the more discriminating racists. Most Japanese, on the other hand, could give a fuck about that. If you’re going to troll, at least stop making stupid shit up.

chucky3176

Someone didn’t get the sarcastic joke. No sense of humor. I guess you’re part of the exclusive club.

besudesu

@chucky3176:disqus @nic Look the idea of ‘pure blood’ is a load of nationalist nonsense. If you bother to read any of several excellent academic works on bio-anthropology in East Asia, they will demonstrate rather quickly that we’ve all got mixed blood, and that any notion of pure racial homogeneity must have been invented by a similar band of people to those who believed the earth was flat and that evolution is a fairy story.

Ruaraidh

Chuckaaaaaaaay, if you read this sort of thing all the time I can now understand why you feel the way you do about the Japanese.

You should go and visit the country though, you might find out that what you read online isn’t representative of the country as a whole. You’d probably even have a whale of a time.

chucky3176

Ruardaidh, I already wrote about this many times, so I won’t repeat again. But I’m quite familiar how Japan works. But thanks for the offer.

Justin_kBANG

well, still not the same as visiting, chucky – 100 questions < 1 visit

ChuckRamone

It’s okay if you go there just to visit. Of course you’ll have fun. Don’t ever try to live there though if you’re a foreigner who is not white, and especially if you’re an Asian who is not Japanese. I made that mistake. You will not be treated well by people outside of your immediate circle of Japanese acquaintances.

Fire

She will be popular, like Sada Abe

Sillian

Yahoo Japan seems like a stronghold for those nettouyo losers. Is there any mainstream website where comments aren’t that much skewed?

http://www.youtube.com/user/VictimOfBoredom Matt

Most “normal” people would never take the time out of their their day to write comments on the Internet in the first place.

The average person watches YouTube videos, but only a minority have active accounts and actually make comments.

The average person reads Yahoo headline articles, but only a minority have active accounts and actually make comments.

That’s why gauging the public opinion of a group of people based on the comments “they” make on the Internet is a fundamentally flawed methodology. You’re encountering intrinsic sample bias, but the Internet is so massive and omnipresent that most people don’t realize this.

Sillian

In a way we are ‘abnormal’ to write comments here! Yea those comment writers are a very small part of the internet users. I get an impression that it is even stigmatized in Japan unless you are using something more personal like twitter or community blogs. Still it is interesting that Korea related articles tend to become some of the most viewed articles easily.

chucky3176

“Still it is interesting that Korea related articles tend to become some of the most viewed articles easily”

I think stalking is the proper word for that.

Sillian

I get annoyed reading stupid shit too but you gotta take it all in perspective. I think you are too sucked into this. You need to take some break for yourself.

chucky3176

Perhaps. But I do enjoy the reads, it’s addictive. It’s hard to stop reading when every second topic is about Korea. It’s always curious what they say about us.

Kate

Uh chucky how can one stalk an article or website? Besides most commentators here ether live in korea or did or have have a korean spouse or family or are american korean. Most of the commentators here have pretty strong ties to korea….so yeah most here have a deep interest in korea. Frankly I didn’t care about korea or koreans until I met my husband.

Sillian

I am very certain that he was talking about those yahoo Japan users.

besudesu

That’s a good point, Matt, and that’s why we try to emphasise that although we do cover things that are trending among netizens, their responses shouldn’t be taken as representative of the entirety of Japanese society.

Kate

I don’t agree. I think people comment all the time on small forums in areas of interest to them. Go to Babycenter for example and there is a huge active community of moms and pregnant women commenting and they are just normal people. The internet is a social connection that allows one to have conversations around topics of similar interest. Sure I have lots of friends in real life but not one of them cares about korea or korean news whstsoever, but I still like to talk about these things because of my own background and person experiences. So I come here on down time. I also go to other places where I have other interest like sewing forums.

To say “normal” people don’t comment is implying that those who do comment are abnormal and I don’t believe that anyone here on kbang is abnormal…opinionated certainly but not abnormal (which also connotates weirdness which is very negative).

I’m sure everyone in this forum has a normal job and normal families and a normal life. Like I normally comment when I’m laying down with my baby but most of the day I do other stuff. I have dinner with my family, go jogging, grocery shopping, etc. Totally normal and boring.

http://www.youtube.com/user/VictimOfBoredom Matt

1. Ah! You’re still alive!

2. By juxtaposing writing Internet comments with “normalcy”, I didn’t necessarily mean it in the pejorative sense that those who do so are demented beings detached from mainstream society, but rather that the active participation necessitates some degree of extraordinary (not in the hyperbolic sense, but rather in the sense of, “out of the ordinary”) personal interest that consequently manifests in a sample bias. For example, a pregnant woman or a new mother are certainly not “weird”, but at the same time, the average person is not a pregnant woman or a new mother, and definitely wouldn’t be frequenting Babycenter. “kBANG’ers” are (mostly) normal people, but Anglophone interest in Korean-language Internet society/culture undeniably gravitates toward eccentricity rather than normalcy. With you having a Korean husband, it’s perfectly normal and expected that you would be interested in Korean society and culture, but then again, not many Anglophones have Korean husbands…

Then again, due to age-, gender-, and socioeconomic-stratification, perhaps there is no such thing as “normal”, even within a single nationality, no matter how allegedly homogenous.

Regardless, the point remains that one can’t reliably extrapolate the comments of netizens to faithfully represent the parent society that those netizens come from, even if those netizens profess to speak on behalf of that parent society. Lord knows I’ve read so many comments by Americans claiming to speak on behalf of “the American people”, when in reality I’d truly like nothing more than to dislocate their overzealous jaws…

Lillian

You are a laughable pseudo-intellectual who claims to be part-Chinese from Irvine. Are you really a Japanese nationalist, because judging your comments history, I find it extremely hard to believe you are in any way Chinese. By the way, just because you can spout off a bunch of big words and nonsense does not mean that you come across as an intellectual. You are just as biased as any nationalist is.

I’m not going to apologize for my choice of vocabulary, as I think language is a fantastic thing which ought to be utilized to its practical fullest extent, and if I have a specific word that communicates precisely what I’d like to communicate, I’m not going to drop it in favor of a less precise, more “folksy” term merely to cater to the populist whims of knee-jerk philistines.

Now, having said that: Yes, I am half-Chinese, and yes, I am from Irvine. I don’t know if you’re bringing up Irvine because you’re actually familiar with the place, or if you’re just posing it as one element of my “questionable identity”, but if it’s the former, I can certainly prove I know the place like the back of my hand (if my hand was reeeeeally big).

And no, I am not a nationalist of any sort. As a multicultural / multiethnic individual, it’s natural that I abhor the very concept of monocultural chauvinism and international hostility, and more acutely an ideology which at its core opposes the very existence of someone like me who transcends national barriers.

From a rather different perspective, I’m also annoyed by rude jackasses who lack manners and etiquette. It may be true that Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese are all equally “nationalistic”, but it is quite clear that one of these groups is generally far more civil and courteous and knows how distasteful and shameful it is to publicly be a boorish, hot-headed, loud-mouthed jingoist.

Lillian

You are unbelievably pretentious. I have been following your comments for quite a while now, but the way you pretend to be some kind of philosophical pseudo-intellectual with your big nonsense vocabulary and run-on sentences is HILARIOUS, when in fact, you are utterly clueless about Asia in general. I actually think it is more likely you are a Japanese nationalist pretending to be a half-Chinese American OR one of those Japanese-loving Wapanese/gaijin. Not to say that someone of any Chinese descent couldn’t have your opinions such as the overly positive opinions of Japanese, but it’s extremely unlikely. It is, however, extremely likely that a Japanese nationalist would pretend to be a Chinese person, because that is how they try to create online backlash against countries that they hate. You make total generalizations about countries that you don’t like. I actually think that the first sentence in your last paragraph applies extremely well to you, as well as many of the other trolls on this and other websites. You try to gloss over the fact that you are just as biased and shallow as any of the other posters with your big words and your pseudo intellectual vocabulary, but it’s all a smokescreen. I don’t think anyone looks at you with any kind of admiration because of the way you talk. Drop the pseudo-intellectual act, because it is patronizing and EXTREMELY pretentious.

dk2020

What is up with these weirdo trolls that come out of nowhere talkin’ shit? Hey dickface these forums aren’t a popularity contest, Matt can say whatever the fuck he wants asshole! Don’t worry I’m not pretentious pseudo intellectual

No dummy .. more like in the US, Asian Americans tend to come together as one community, that’s why i don’t have that animosity against other East Asians like some of the fobs that only stick within their own community. That way is really sheltered and breeds racism.

Lillian

Hi dickface, asshole! Why don’t you go f**k yourself?

dk2020

damn fool .. took you 5 days to reply and thats all you got? what a douche …

http://www.youtube.com/user/VictimOfBoredom Matt

dk2020 already said most of everything I could care to say to you, but all I’ll add is:

1. I honestly fail to see how I’m using “big words”. As far as I can tell, you type just like I do. Hell, you used the word “generalizations”, which is a whopping SIX syllables! Damn nigga, you crazy!

2. I know what a run-on sentence is, and I don’t use them. Just because a sentence is “long” doesn’t mean it’s a run-on sentence.

3. Nothing I’ve said is remotely “philosophical”. Just because you see a large body of text doesn’t mean it’s about philosophy. -_-

In summary, your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

besudesu

Plus one.

Lillian

Pseudo-intellectual pretender, just admit you’re no better than the other nationalists and trolls on this website.. dk2020 – go f*ck yourself – no one asked you to involve yourself in my conversation.

That’s a really interesting question, Sillian. So, you know that there is netto uyoku, (netouyo/internet right wing), well there is also netto sayoku (internet left wing). But I get the impression that they don’t shout quite as loudly as the netoouyo. Still, jC contributors are being urged to check out any possible strongholds that attract significant attention. Even though only a small minority of netizens hold extreme right-wing views, the articles they comment on tend to have generally high access numbers, and high numbers of comments, too, which is why we cover them. Plus, Yahoo!News ranks articles and comments, so it gives us a good indicator of the overall reach of an article. Many Japanese news sites don’t even allow comments, so it’s really difficult to gauge whether the article is being read and reacted to, and by whom.

‘As I showed through a link to an academic article in a previous comment you left, Net Uyo only amount to a tiny percentage of internet users in Japan.

‘Japan’s mainstream media (aside from perhaps the Sankei Shimbun) is not sympathetic to the views of the right wingers. So non-right wingers don’t need to go onto the internet to vent their views anonymously. They can read and hear the non-right wing perspective on a daily basis on TV and in the newspapers.

‘The net uyo turn to the internet because they are marginalized, angry, and ignored by the mainstream. All they can do is spam web forums and comment pages of news sites. (Some scholars have argued that marginalized groups are more likely to embrace internet technologies because of something called “Outparty Innovation Incentives”)

‘Non-crazy people does not need to use the internet to vent their political opinions because they are not desperate and angry.’

"Like K-Pop and Korean TV dramas, the popularity of Korean cosmetics has been undeniable for the past few years. And as South Korea has become a popular tourist destination, Korean cosmetic companies have begun to realize that Japanese tourists were perhaps some of their best customers. While it’s not all going to Japan, one thing is certain: Korea’s cosmetic exports climbed $600 million in 2010, up from $80 million in 2001."

But the amount of damage the netouyo people is doing to Japan's image is making me so, so angry – kinda like all the Islamophobics in the US making us look extremely bad to the Arabic Internet, really. The only thing I can do is to fight free speech with more speech, tbh.

This person like Utada Hikaru! [Stereotypically speaking, foreigners with a heavy accents adds ネ at the end] PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V ← This is him. If you like bizarre old men, please watch.

There *are* people who don't hate S. Korea in Japan, as Twitter suggests.

Sillian

Thanks for your insights. It seems you spent a lot of time on this! My Japanese friends and I never even talk about politics and all this crazy right wing stuff. Fervent nationalists everywhere should realize they are doing only harm. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t criticize foreign countries when there are reasonable causes. They just have to do it with level-headed perspectives and constructive outlooks. Nobody or no country is perfect.

helloworld011191

I know, I’m obsessed – I need to focus on school! I lived in Japan for 8 years, I think that’s why.

>Nobody or no country is perfect.

*Nods* Exactly!

I *do* despise the netouyo, but I also despise the Islamophobes in the US who are completely unaware of CIA overthrowing Iran’s democratically elected President, or even worse, suggest that having a dictator for those countries is better than a democracy because they’re all *too* religious or something, so . . . yeah.

Paul M

How chilling. Kind of reminds me of the Fred West murders. Although I’m a bit confused as to how they found the body that was encased in concrete inside a metal drum that had been dumped in the sea. An unlucky fishing trawler or a tip off perhaps?

PixelPulse

Looks like someone tip the police since its being dragged out the water surrounded by officers and divers.

Stacy

Whoa! A female serial killer. That’s pretty rare.

expatrick

Why are there so many Japanese serial killers?

Your Sexy Cousin Rex

“and Ando Mitsue (71), Sumida’s elder brother’s girlfriend.”

It’s really cute that people still date when they are in their 70s. Shame that she got cut the fuck up.

A Lu

No sex or racial hate involved? such a boring serial killer…

ChuckRamone

Is she really an ethnic Korean?

JustKillingFilms

Yes. It’s an ethnic Korean case but generally the Japanese media won’t disclose it as it’s against the “rules”. However the rules are somewhat hypocritical when it comes to other so-called taboos.

For example, liberal English-language journalists like Eric Johnston of the Japan Times has taken a few opportunities in the past two weeks to repeatedly write about Hashimoto Toru’s estranged father’s burakumin and yakuza background – taking the lead from the Asahi Gendai tabloid cover story – almost gleefully as it is obvious he strongly opposes Hashimoto’s politics. However, when it comes to making mention of the Korean background of prominent criminal cases, Johnston will rush to don his special Human Rights Protective Beany.

Joji Obara who raped, killed and dismembered Lucy Blackman in 2000 was born Kim Sung Jong. That name was withheld in the general press until Blackman’s parents ‘outed’ him. ‘Racist white pig English!’ And, if you look at the fucked up details regarding Joji Obara’s proclivities, growing up as a Korean probably had a lot to do with his inferiority complexes and other complexes which helped turn him into a serial rapist/killer.

Same goes for that guy who was killed in the “hit” using metal baseball bats and pipes in the Roppongi FLOWER club. “Ryosuke FUJIMOTO 藤本亮介 ” was an alias. His real name was CHUNG and he had a Korean passport, not a Japanese one.

ChuckRamone

Okay, but you’re just mentioning cases involving ethnic Koreans. What about the guy a couple years ago who killed the English teacher and left her in a tub on his balcony?

tanaka Kimura

i can see japan declining just by reading comments.

redgirls

I read somewhere, she tracked some who had escàped down an took them back and killed them. Like she had some strange hold over them is that true? Scary stuff.
May they rest in peace.